Name of Presenter: Beena Raichura Workshop Title: Using Kurzweil to support Reading and Writing for Students in grades 3-8 Subject: Special education students in grades 3-8 Audience: Teachers teaching students in grades 3-8
Pre requisite
Knowledge of Kurzweil
Content
“Kurzweil is text reader software that has the capability to read text on the screen. Kurzweil helps students focus and better attend to reading tasks. It reduces reading distractibility and allows students to read faster, with less fatigue, for longer periods of time, and complete reading assignments in less time (Hecker, Burns, Elkind, Elkind & Katz, 2002). It is a beneficial tool for students with a variety of reading and decoding delays.” (Wilson, 2011)
To use Kurzweil effectively in the classroom, you need to put in some thought as to how it will benefit your students and how it can be made available to them in the classroom. Kurzweil can be an effective tool when used during regular class work and as an accommodation during testing.
Note: Using Kurzweil just for testing is not a good idea. It puts students at a disadvantage as they are not used to the program when it is used only for testing.
Objectives for this lesson
Participants will learn creative ways to integrate Kurzweil in their classrooms even when only a few students in the classroom need to use it.
Participants will identify students that will most benefit from the using Kurzweil in the classroom based on their needs and the features of Kurzweil.
Participants will learn to help students with mild to moderate learning disabilities; low vision and auditory processing disorders take a test independently.
Participants will help students that struggle with spellings; reading and writing improve their academic achievement in school.
Participants will help ESOL students and students with decoding, spellings and vocabulary issues learn better.
How will you teach the lesson?
Participants will be provided tips to effectively incorporate using Kurzweil with their struggling students in the classroom.
Guidelines to be successful when using Kurzweil in the classroom
1. Create and have available digital reading material to support your content area
a) Worksheets – scanned or created in Word and saved in a shared folder b) PDF files – converted using the Professional version of Kurzweil and saved in a shared folder c) Information from the Internet – copied and pasted into Word and then saved to a shared folder
Kurzweil can open Word documents without any scanning or conversion required, so this is the easiest and quickest way to get meaningful content in a digital format. Use materials you have created in Word, or copy and paste content from the Internet into a Word document.
2. Demonstrate using Kurzweil to your students
Model good reading strategies for the whole class on the Promethean board if one is available to you.
a) Re‐reading b) Highlighting important information c) Checking vocabulary words
Kurzweil should be used as a teaching tool not a teaching replacement. It is an effective tool to use with students struggling with reading and writing skills.
3. Give students at least one period in the computer lab
Use a simple assignment so students can focus on the new skill of using Kurzweil and you can focus on observing them.
a) Allow students to experiment with speeds and voices so that they can understand what works best for them b) Observe students carefully to see how they benefit from Kurzweil.
As with all new things, students need to get their hands on Kurzweil and experiment before they can be expected to use it responsibly and meaningfully. Help them see what works best for them by allowing them to experiment with the different options. Provide students detailed instructions about the tools available in Kurzweil.
4. Provide opportunities for students to use Kurzweil as an alternative to reading independently
a) Use a headphone splitters so that more than one student can use Kurzweil at a time b) Allow students to read during independent work time in the classroom c) Allow students to go to the media center or a computer lab when they need to read
Now that your students understand why they are using Kurzweil, you need to give them a chance to use it. This cannot happen on a regular basis if the expectation is that all kids are doing the same thing at the same time. You may need to make some changes in the way you teach.
Note: Kurzweil comes in two versions a Professional version and the Learn Station version. The Professional version has a built in scanning feature and needs to be connected to a scanner. The “Learn Station”version is for students' use and has text to speech and study tools. Materials scanned using Kurzweil Professional are converted to a .kes file that retains the graphics and page layout. You can also use Kurzweil to scan a document to be read with SOLO ReadOutLoud. In that case use Save As to convert the files to a .rtf file format. • rtf files can be read by SOLO ReadOutLoud software, however, you will lose the graphics and some formatting.
How to use Kurzweil in the classroom
Kurzweil can be used in the classroom to:
complete worksheets
to study and write
to bubble notes
to scan passages and notes so that students can use Kurzweil to read
to save e-text from the Internet
to read books on bookshare.org ( MCPS has a subscription for it, check with the media specialist to get a log in and password)
to help students, who cannot read fixed hard copies of text to read independently
to help students who can integrate auditory and visual information, but have poor unaided reading rates or endurance to read. (Elkind, 1998).
1. Kurzweil 3000 v.10 Self Directed Course (2008) This is a self directed course to Kurzweil 3000 v10. It has presentations, demonstrations, activities and tutorials for teachers desiring to implement Kurzweil in their classrooms.
Kurzweil test samples the link demonstrates the many ways Kurzweil can be used in the classroom for testing.
Dyslexia and Kuzweil this pages provides information about the different kinds of problems students with Dyslexia face and how Kurzweil can help them.
Introducing text readers in the classroom: this article talks about Patrick O’ Hearn Elementary School in Dorchester MA that became an all inclusive school in spring of 1989. At that time it decided to use text to speech software like Kurzweil to help its special needs students succeed in school with their same age peers. The article provides an overview of text readers, what to select, when to select, implementation process and its quantitative and qualitative impact.
Evaluation/Test Yourself
Complete these activities and then complete an evaluation survey on the evaluation page of this wiki. You can navigate to that page from the table of contents or the navigation menu on the right.
Open Kurzweil on the school computer Turn on the text to speech and word predictions features on it Then make a fill in the blank worksheet on a topic of your choice Next select a book from bookshare.org Scan a few pages of a chapter in the book into Kurzweil and have it read the chapter to you. Adjust the volume and voice (type and speed) using the controls in the tool bar.
Next, using the electronic bookmark in Kurzweil bookmark the page Highlight a few sentences in the book using the highlighter pen. Make notes about the chapter (few words to a sentence) using the foot notes, stick notes and record your voice features.
Day2
Table of Contents
Workshop Title:
Using Kurzweil to support Reading and Writing for Students in grades 3-8
Subject: Special education students in grades 3-8
Audience: Teachers teaching students in grades 3-8
Pre requisite
Knowledge of KurzweilContent
“Kurzweil is text reader software that has the capability to read text on the screen. Kurzweil helps students focus and better attend to reading tasks. It reduces reading distractibility and allows students to read faster, with less fatigue, for longer periods of time, and complete reading assignments in less time (Hecker, Burns, Elkind, Elkind & Katz, 2002).It is a beneficial tool for students with a variety of reading and decoding delays.” (Wilson, 2011)
To use Kurzweil effectively in the classroom, you need to put in some thought as to how it will benefit your students and how it can be made available to them in the classroom. Kurzweil can be an effective tool when used during regular class work and as an accommodation during testing.
Note: Using Kurzweil just for testing is not a good idea. It puts students at a disadvantage as they are not used to the program when it is used only for testing.
Objectives for this lesson
How will you teach the lesson?
Participants will be provided tips to effectively incorporate using Kurzweil with their struggling students in the classroom.Guidelines to be successful when using Kurzweil in the classroom
1. Create and have available digital reading material to support your content area
a) Worksheets – scanned or created in Word and saved in a shared folder
b) PDF files – converted using the Professional version of Kurzweil and saved in a shared folder
c) Information from the Internet – copied and pasted into Word and then saved to a shared folder
Kurzweil can open Word documents without any scanning or conversion required, so this is the easiest and quickest way to get meaningful content in a digital format. Use materials you have created in Word, or copy and paste content from the Internet into a Word document.
2. Demonstrate using Kurzweil to your students
Model good reading strategies for the whole class on the Promethean board if one is available to you.
a) Re‐reading
b) Highlighting important information
c) Checking vocabulary words
Kurzweil should be used as a teaching tool not a teaching replacement. It is an effective tool to use with students struggling with reading and writing skills.
3. Give students at least one period in the computer lab
Use a simple assignment so students can focus on the new skill of using Kurzweil and you can focus on observing them.
a) Allow students to experiment with speeds and voices so that they can understand what works best for them
b) Observe students carefully to see how they benefit from Kurzweil.
As with all new things, students need to get their hands on Kurzweil and experiment before they can be expected to use it responsibly and meaningfully. Help them see what works best for them by allowing them to experiment with the different options. Provide students detailed instructions about the tools available in Kurzweil.
4. Provide opportunities for students to use Kurzweil as an alternative to reading independently
a) Use a headphone splitters so that more than one student can use Kurzweil at a time
b) Allow students to read during independent work time in the classroom
c) Allow students to go to the media center or a computer lab when they need to read
Now that your students understand why they are using Kurzweil, you need to give them a chance to use it. This cannot happen on a regular basis if the expectation is that all kids are doing the same thing at the same time. You may need to make some changes in the way you teach.
Note: Kurzweil comes in two versions a Professional version and the Learn Station version. The Professional version has a built in scanning feature and needs to be connected to a scanner. The “Learn Station” version is for students' use and has text to speech and study tools. Materials scanned using Kurzweil Professional are converted to a .kes file that retains the graphics and page layout. You can also use Kurzweil to scan a document to be read with SOLO ReadOutLoud. In that case use Save As to convert the files to a .rtf file format. • rtf files can be read by SOLO ReadOutLoud software, however, you will lose the graphics and some formatting.
How to use Kurzweil in the classroom
Kurzweil can be used in the classroom to:
Resources for Kurzweil 3000 from SET-BC
1. Kurzweil 3000 v.10 Self Directed Course (2008)
This is a self directed course to Kurzweil 3000 v10. It has presentations, demonstrations, activities and tutorials for teachers desiring to implement Kurzweil in their classrooms.
2. Kurzweil 3000 v. 9 and v.10: Essential Skills Guide with Accompanying Assignments (2006)
This link provides guides and assignments for users to become confident in using Kurzweil in their classrooms. The accompanying assignments help individual become proficient with the basics of the program.
Additional Resources
Video tutorials on how to use different versions of KurzweilKurzweil free trials page
Kurzweil Lesson Plans
Educational Resources a collection of resources to help teachers use Kurzweil in their classroom.
Kurzweil test samples the link demonstrates the many ways Kurzweil can be used in the classroom for testing.
Dyslexia and Kuzweil this pages provides information about the different kinds of problems students with Dyslexia face and how Kurzweil can help them.
Introducing text readers in the classroom: this article talks about Patrick O’ Hearn Elementary School in Dorchester MA that became an all inclusive school in spring of 1989. At that time it decided to use text to speech software like Kurzweil to help its special needs students succeed in school with their same age peers. The article provides an overview of text readers, what to select, when to select, implementation process and its quantitative and qualitative impact.
Evaluation/Test Yourself
Complete these activities and then complete an evaluation survey on the evaluation page of this wiki. You can navigate to that page from the table of contents or the navigation menu on the right.Open Kurzweil on the school computer
Turn on the text to speech and word predictions features on it
Then make a fill in the blank worksheet on a topic of your choice
Next select a book from bookshare.org
Scan a few pages of a chapter in the book into Kurzweil and have it read the chapter to you.
Adjust the volume and voice (type and speed) using the controls in the tool bar.
Next, using the electronic bookmark in Kurzweil bookmark the page
Highlight a few sentences in the book using the highlighter pen.
Make notes about the chapter (few words to a sentence) using the foot notes, stick notes and record your voice features.
Table of Contents